Alexa devices in the UK and Germany can now remotely control the Amazon Fire TV and Fire TV Stick

Amazon has started rolling out an update in the UK and Germany that allows external Alexa devices to control Fire TVs and Fire TV Sticks. This feature has been available in the US for several months but is now making its way overseas. With this capability, you can ask Alexa on an Echo device to launch apps, start content, and control playback on Fire TV devices without using their remote control.

If you have only one Fire TV device, it should automatically be linked up with your Echo devices for remote voice control. If it’s not, or if you have multiple Fire TVs and/or Fire TV Sticks, you’ll need to link your Fire TV devices with specific Echo devices in the Alexa app. If the option to link Fire TVs with Echos isn’t available in the Alexa app, it may not have rolled out to your specific Amazon account just yet.

Once linked together, you can use the Alexa device to control playback of what is currently playing on the Fire TV, Fire TV Stick, or Fire TV Edition television by saying “Alexa, pause/play/rewind/fast-forward.” If you have multiple devices that can accept these commands, you can specify you want to control the Fire TV by adding “…on Fire TV” to the end of any command.

You can also ask to start playing specific content by saying “Alexa, watch [movie/show name].” This works for all Amazon Video and Prime Video content, but only works on some third-party apps.

In addition to controlling and starting content, you can also ask Alexa devices to launch apps by saying “Alexa, open [app name].” Also available is searching by saying “Search for [query] on Fire TV.” The last command that is available for all Fire TV devices is to simply say “Alexa, go home” to load the Fire TV home screen.